“I thought we were naive today,” head coach Damon Rensing told media following Sunday’s loss to OSU. “I thought we played into their hands pretty well. At the end of the day we didn’t do things that we needed to do to win Big Ten games, we looked the part, but didn’t take care of business.” 

Despite the final score, the Spartans played very aggressively, outshooting the Buckeyes 18-9. Sunday’s contest was also a physical one with a combined 22 fouls, 10 of which were on MSU. 

“It’s difficult not getting results, especially at home,” senior goalkeeper Zach Bennett said after the game. “It’s a Big Ten game, I mean anything can happen and it did. These are really really tough games to win, just like any conference game would be and we just weren’t able to get it done today”.

MSU’s lone goal came late in the second half in the 86th minute when freshman forward Ryan Sierakowski scored his third goal of the season when he headed one in from six yards out. Senior defender Zach Carroll and junior defender Jerome Cristobal were given the assists.

Offensive struggles have continued to plague the Spartans at home, with their last goal before Sierakowski's on Sunday coming at home against West Virginia in a 1-0 overtime win back on Sept. 7th.

“Some days we can finish and some days we can’t, we just have to find that consistency,” Sierakowski said. “We watch film, learn from our mistakes, see what we did good and keep growing.”

MSU now falls to 5-4-1 overall and 1-1-1 against other Big Ten teams this season. The Spartans are going to have to capitalize on every offense chance that comes their way if they want to play come tourney time.

The men’s soccer team will regroup this week and look forward to travel out and play Wisconsin (2-7-1) this Saturday. Kickoff is set for 8 p.m.